Page 19 of He Had It Coming

“Her own words on those pages explained why—”

“You strangled her?” I snapped back. “No, they really don’t.”

He needed to stop before my control disintegrated, but his ego wouldn’t let him. Not a surprise. His personality consisted mostly of unearned victimhood and rancid, raging indecency.

“You hate the truth.” He spit out the last word like he had any idea what it meant.

I refused to concede one inch. “I’m still waiting to hear you say an honest sentence.”

“How about this? Your sister liked sex.” He stared me down as he said the words.

I’d daydreamed about how he’d beg for mercy as I killed him. I no longer needed him to beg.

“She liked me.” His eyebrows lifted. “I mean really liked me.”

Maeve’s sharp intake of breath broke through the silence that followed his statement. “Jerek, stop.”

I’d almost forgotten she was there. Sitting, watching, tuning in and not fighting for his side or any side, really. Playing the abstract role I’d assigned her. “Listen to your sister.”

Jerek didn’t retreat. “Ruby was insistent and, frankly, borderline self-destructive. She was a cock tease.”

“Enlighten me about how your liking sex makes you a big man but Ruby liking sex means she deserved to die.” Because those were the battle lines people drew. Sometimes unspoken but always there, waiting to cast blame on only one party.

He frowned. “I never said that.”

Not in those exact words, but yes. “Your attorneys did.”

“They . . .” He stopped as if searching for the right words. “Their job was to protect me.”

That was the Hayes family line. The excuse used when they got pummeled by don’t blame the victim pushback from the public. “Whose job was it to protect Ruby?”

Maeve made a strangled sound as if she sensed a delicate and dangerous turn to come.

Jerek didn’t immediately answer. He sat there, staring. Then he smirked. “Maybe your parents. You? I’m not the one who made Ruby into the danger-seeking person she was. She needed something and wasn’t getting it, and that wasn’t my fault. You were more to blame for her actions than me.”

My patience snapped. The crack vibrated through me.

I plunged the knife into his leg.

His eyes widened as his body bucked. “Fuck!”

He tried to lift up. To put distance between his leg and the blade, but I’d lodged it in the outer fleshy part of his thigh. Away from the femoral artery because that would end the game too quickly.

I watched as he jerked and gasped. Saw the blood bubble up around the knife and stain his pants. Smiled as the handle bobbled from all his shifting and squealing.

Maeve gaped but didn’t move. She appeared to be locked in place.

His chest rose and fell on labored breaths. His fingers wrapped around the armrests.

The harsh pants. His pale face. I took it all in. Reveled in it. “You were saying?”

“Help me,” he begged Maeve.

She leaned forward, inching closer to the knife.

“Don’t.” I put up my hand to reinforce the order. “If you remove it, he’ll bleed out. He’s fine for now. In pain but who cares.”

Jerek’s grumbled moaning didn’t stop.